From the archive: Two minutes to midnight: did the US miss its chance to stop North Korea’s nuclear programme?

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2018: An unprecedented US mission to Pyongyang in 1999 promised to defuse Kim’s nuclear threat. But it all came to nothing – and then the hawks took power. By Julian Borger. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Guardian.
0:10.8	Sometimes you just need to get away.
0:13.0	And for the Aglewall family, it was well over you.
0:15.8	They wanted to know exactly what they were getting,
0:18.3	like knowing their kids stay and eat a delicious breakfast for free!
0:21.9	Yes!
0:22.8	And no need to look heavy bags, with free parking at over 500 hotels.
0:27.2	Enjoy the same feeling whatever the trip.
0:30.2	Premier in, rest easy.
0:32.2	Only available to book at premierin.com.
0:35.5	Season C's apply of two kids stay and eat breakfast free with a full-paying adult.
0:44.7	Hello, my name is Julian Borgia and I'm the author of this piece, Two Minutes to Midnight.
0:50.0	Did the US miss its chance to stop North Korea's nuclear program?
0:54.5	I wrote this piece in March 2018.
0:59.7	Things were quite bleak at that time, in terms of any hope of stopping North Korea's nuclear
1:05.9	weapons program. The regime had carried out six nuclear tests.
1:11.3	It had begun testing an intercontinental ballistic missile and ICBM.
1:16.5	And it was believed to have mastered the technology to put the two things together,
1:21.0	to make a warhead small enough to bid in the tip of an ICBM.
1:27.8	The US was still talking at that time about preventing the North Koreans getting a nuclear arsenal.
1:34.6	But even by 2018, it was pretty clear that ship had already sailed.
1:40.8	I was digging into the history of that failure and the experts and the former officials that I was
	...

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